On track: Hoffman Honors Scholar studies public transit

Public transit is where Sawyer’s lifelong passion for travel meets his commitment to making an impact. The University of Cincinnati first-year geography major in the College of Arts & Sciences and member of the second cohort of Hoffman Honors Scholars (HHS) has hit the ground running, designing a research project intended to capture both how public transit works and how its users perceive it.

Sawyer has developed his research independently, through the self-designed honors experience framework available to him as a member of the University Honors Program (UHP). Titled “The United States of Unsustainable Transit,” Sawyer’s project takes a qualitative approach to exploring public transit. Initially, his goal was to use the Cincinnati Metro transit system as much as possible and interview other Metro riders — and then to do the same on a trip to Portland and Seattle — to compare rider experiences and perceptions of their respective local transit systems.

“I’m trying to understand the perceptions from people who live in Cincinnati versus people who live [in the urban Pacific Northwest],” Sawyer said, adding that he hopes to learn “what we can do as a university and as a city to make transit easier”.

One interview Sawyer conducted in Seattle, with a University of Washington student, left an especially strong impression. Their conversation, which took place on the Sound Transit light rail line, lasted “all the way to downtown and back.” Overall, Sawyer’s Pacific Northwest interview subjects agreed that, despite their desire for broader transit coverage in the area, they were grateful to live within what is, by American standards, a comprehensive and reliable transit system.

Sawyer acknowledged that Cincinnati’s metro area has roughly half the population of Seattle’s, and that the regions have numerous cultural, political and economic differences that shape both funding availability for and common attitudes toward public transit. The aim of his research is to understand those differences better, and to use that understanding as a foundation for thinking about what the future of public transit in Cincinnati might look like. Sawyer also plans to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, which he is currently gaining proficiency in through his major coursework, to assist in creating a visual representation of his research.

When Sawyer was presented with an opportunity to visit family members abroad over winter break, he realized that he could take his project with him.